50 Cent: Blood On The Sand is an arcade-y third person shooter that is a lot of fun to play. The storyline is definitely on the ridiculous side as you have to get back a crystal skull that was given to you as payment for performing at a concert.

Blood On The Sand is made with the Unreal Engine and as such a lot of comparisons have been made to Gears of War. You can take cover in much the same way you do in Gears and the way you select your weapon is very reminiscent of Epic’s shooter. The game has standard third person controls with shooting using the right trigger and being able to zoom in using the left trigger. You also have various types of explosives at your disposal as well as explosive barrels that litter the landscape. Your standard pistol has unlimited ammunition however you will have to look for ammunition laying around for your other guns. Throughout the journey you will get to upgrade your weapons using the cash that you have found. Whenever you come by a working pay phone you can call your contact and he will sell you guns, new counter kills and new taunts. There are some achievements linked to unlocking all of these but to do so requires a lot of money. You can get 50 Cent to taunt the enemies by pressing in the left joystick.

There is no online play in terms of death match or anything of that nature, however, there is online co-op. Right when you start a game you decide which member of G-Unit will be accompanying you and who can join you in co-op. You can leave your game “open” and then anyone would be able to join you at any time. You can also make it so that only people on your friends list can join in or that you will need to send them an invite before they can join your game. There are also online leader boards where you can judge how you are doing against your friends list or how you are doing against everyone who has played the game.

As you progress through the game you will earn medals. Depending on how good you did in a particular round you will either get a bronze, silver or gold medal. Depending on what kind of medals you get you will unlock different things. You could unlock some cheats such as infinite ammo or invulnerability. You could also unlock some concept art as well as some of 50 Cent’s music videos. There is also a music player where you can create a play list of the songs that you want to listen to as you are going through the game. If you don’t really care about creating a play list you could always turn “shuffle” on and it will randomly pick which songs it plays or the game will just play the default list. There is also a really nice feature where once you beat the game you get to keep what earned. If you beat the game on the normal difficulty and then choose to go through it on the hard difficulty you will keep all of your upgraded weapons as well as your unused cash supply. There is something satisfying about taking your upgraded pistol and quickly taking out enemies that used to give you some trouble.

Overall 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand is an enjoyable game. I can definitely see myself going through the campaign again with my upgraded weapons set and trying to get some more achievements. This game is not terribly deep so don’t go in expecting the next great epic, however, it is a lot of fun. It’s an arcade-y shooter where you can wreak havoc and blow up a lot of stuff. This title is also complete fan service to those who enjoy 50’s music. There are 19 unreleased tracks that make an appearance on this game. If you are a fan of third person shooters, or of 50’s music, then by all means give this game a try.